And Life Goes On
by Cokies07
Summary: A 1K word drabble on Sakura's thoughts, and emotions concerning a certain dark haired avenger.Set in the future. according to me


What is revenge? It is the punishing of somebody in retaliation for harm or injury done. Nothing but the driving force, the excuse, if you will, given by those who have been greatly hurt as a cover for their pain.

Those who have been deeply wounded say revenge drives them, that it gives them a reason to live. They say that it makes them stronger, that it gives them strength when they are weak. Is this true? I don't think so.

Why?

Why not?

Because they live for the revenge, working with all their might to get stronger every day when in reality, all they are doing is shielding themselves and their hearts from the people that could heal them. The people that could make them whole again: the people that love them.

Revenge is only needed when a deep wound, a grave injustice has been committed. When one is left alone, desolate, wanting, and praying for the strength to stand, to live, to fight, then they need revenge: to shield the broken, mangled remains of their heart. They stand behind the impenetrable wall and yell over it that they cannot be hurt, moved, or dissuaded from their ultimate goal: revenge.

In truth, what they are doing is showing their ultimate weakness. The human heart, once it is broken, can only be fixed by one thing: love. Love is a feeling, an emotion, a flight of fancy. But love also is the driving force of good. It is the strength that a person feels rush through their system when they hear that someone dear to them has been dragged through hell and back. It is what inspires them to move from the place where they are no matter how comfortable it may be, and fight to make things right. Love is the ultimate level of trust: it is sacrifice.

So why is it that those who need a cure for their mangled hearts often seek revenge instead of love?

Why?

Love can only be given by others. It can be given in mass quantities or in small trickles, but the true cruelty of love is that it can be taken away in those same staggering amounts at the slightest whim of the giver. Once it is recalled, the place the love had in the heart of the receiver is once again empty and cold. That emptiness and coldness is what makes people suffer, what hurts them, what breaks them. It is the ultimate weakness of humans, and not even the strongest of us are immune to its grip.

To protect their hearts from being hurt again and again, people hide behind walls, walls they have built to guard themselves from hurt, but unknowingly, what they are guard themselves from is healing, is love. They shove love and all other emotions out, believing themselves safe if they refuse to feel, but truly what they are doing is opening a door for hurt and pain. They need a reason to be this way, closed off from those that love them, so they pin it on the need for revenge.

One cannot live for revenge, because once the revenge is taken, all that is left is emptiness and sadness. This sadness, this sorrow, compounds itself until it is a mass of pain, hurt, even guilt, tearing the bearer apart. Once they have lived their course of revenge, the avenger will die. There is no other path. A human without a goal, a course, a dream, is just an empty shell wandering around: alone.

Without pain, there is no joy in life because without one extreme, the other cannot exist. If one is heartbroken, the only cure is to be loved. When one experiences the pain that is the breaking of a heart, the shattering of dreams, the end of all that one has planned for, they want nothing to do with the emotions that led to that painful moment. Sadly, it is love itself that led them down the path to pain. Yet, almost ironically, it is only love that can heal them and make them whole again. When the concept of the double edged sword of love is understood, only then can a person really begin to live a truly successful life.

Why?

Because they cease to feel that hurt is an enormous chasm they can never return from and begin to see it as what it is: the ultimate challenge on the road of life. The person who is hurt and resolves to never be hurt again will remain in that emotional state for the rest of their life unless they are ready to try again. The person that is hurt, but gets back up and resolves to not hurt the way they were is one that will go far, for they understand a truth seldom known in this world: the cost of loving is always pain.

Those who fall into another category are, perhaps, the weakest of all three types of people. They are the ones that are hurt, but pick themselves up and resolve to try again, only to run from love, hurting the giver in the same way they were hurt, when they are loved. These people hurt others in their own, personal revenge against the person who hurt them, never noticing that all that they are doing is spawning more pain, hurt, anguish, and sorrow.

Life is all about living: experiencing things. One cannot hope to ever swim if one does not want to get wet. In the same way, one cannot hope to love if they do not want to get hurt. Loving is opening a door to your heart and giving the key to somebody else. What they do with that key, whether open the door with love or destroy the key with hate is up to the receiver. There is no guarantees in life; it stands to reason that there are no guarantees in love either, doesn't it?

Sakura put down her pen and re-read her journal entry. She closed the book and placed it on the shelf between her most precious processions: the picture of Team 7, taken when they were a newly formed Genin squad, and a broken black katana- the only thing that had been left of Sasuke after he, Naruto, and she had fought Itachi and the rest of Akatsuki.

She ran her fingers over the picture frame and the chipped hilt and smiled fondly. She would never stop missing the avenger; she had truly loved him. With a toss of her short, pink locks, she walked away from the room and towards the Hokage's office. Naruto was assigning Genin squads to Jounin today. She could only hope her squad was as good as the old Team 7 had been…

**A/N**Ok, this is in the future (a bit obvious, ne?)In his fic, Sasuke, Naruto and Sakura defeated Akatsuki, but Itachi ended up killing Sasuke as well.(Let's say he detonated a huge bomb or something…)Oh, and Naruto is Hokage.

**DISCLAIMER**Masashi Kishimoto owns all the characters in this fic.Not me, sadly, or I'd be rich and lucky!So, please take this as an entertaining piece and not a sue-worthy one.


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